***PRESS RELEASE***
10th International Coral Reef Symposium
Okinawa, Japan
July 2, 2004
WORLD'S LEADING CORAL REEF EXPERTS VOICE OPPOSITION TO U.S. MILITARY
AIRBASE PROJECT AT HENOKO, OKINAWA, AND HIGHLIGHT THE THREAT THAT LAND-FILL
PROJECTS POSE TO CORAL REEFS.
889 of the world's leading coral reef experts from 83 countries
participating in the 10th International Coral Reef Symposium in Okinawa, Japan,
have signed a resolution calling on the governments of Japan and the United
States to immediately abandon their joint plan to construct an offshore airbase
atop a coral reef on the eastern coast of Okinawa. Signatories include over 150
researchers from the United States, and roughly the same number from
Japan.
The conference participants' condemnation of the highly controversial
project was further bolstered by the text of the "Okinawa Declaration," the
outcome document of the symposium. The declaration lists land-fill practices
among the central threats to coral reefs. It also emphasizes the urgent need to
prevent any further destruction of existing coral reefs.
Construction of the sea-based facility, which if built would be 2.5
kilometers long and 800 meters wide, involves a massive land-fill project in the
waters surrounding the Henoko reef. The proposed site is known to be
particularly rich in biological diversity and the primary remaining habitat of
the critically endangered Okinawa dugong (salt-water manatee) and numerous other
threatened species.
Additionally, the sponsors of the resolution, the Environmental Assessment
Watch Group for the Okinawa Dugong and the U.S.-based Center for Biological
Diversity, hosted several events during the week-long symposium. 49 conference
participants from 18 different countries, including several researchers and
policy-makers from the United States, participated in daily tours to view the
proposed construction site. The tour also included a visit to an encampment of
local residents who, since April 19 of this year, have blocked Japan's National
Defense Administration Bureau's efforts to begin a boring survey at 63 sites on
and around the reef.
The widespread condemnation of the project by experts at the coral reef
symposium lends a critical voice to the already strong national and
international opposition to the airbase project. An 8-year effort by local
residents to stop the project, which began when the Japanese and U.S.
governments ignored the results of a 1997 citizens' referendum where a majority
of local residents voted against the new airbase, has grown into a broad,
multi-pronged campaign.
Opposition efforts include a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Defense
brought by a number of Okinawan, Japanese and American groups, including the
Dugong Network Okinawa and the Center for Biological Diversity, filed last year
in the U.S. Federal District Court in San Francisco.
The U.S. seeks to have the case dismissed, arguing that it has no official
relationship to or responsibility for the environmental impact of the
construction itself since the Japanese government is constructing the new base
for the United States. Because the project is based on U.S. designs and
operational specifications, and Japan's National Defense Administration Bureau
will oversee the project with close cooperation from the U.S. military, the
plaintiffs in the lawsuit anticipate a favorable decision by the court requiring
the U.S. government to abandon the project.
The fact that the world's leading coral reef researchers and policy-makers
gathered in Okinawa this week call for the two governments to abandon the
project highlights the growing momentum in the struggle to protect the dugong
and coral reef ecosystem from the offshore airbase project.
-End-
For more information, contact: Makishi Yoshikazu, maxi@ryukyu.ne.jp, (in
Japan) 098.863.7091.Peter Galvin, Center for Biological Diversity,
pgalvin@biologicaldiversity.org, 707.986.7805; Kelly Dietz, kld18@cornell.edu,
(in Japan) 090.6863.0663.